RWBY, Disciples of Grimm
by FictionOfTheFans
Summary: Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang face a threat far exceeding that of past foes. They are the Disciples of Grimm, and from the shadows they have risen to destroy all life. The clash against these mysterious figures holds not just Beacon on the line, but all of Vale. This is their story...
1. Chapter 1: Like Any Other Day

** Just a couple things people should know before we get started...**

**1\. Roman, Cinder, or any other villain introduced after volume one of RWBY will most likely NOT make an appearance in this story. Sorry to disappoint anyone, but they will not be here.**

**2\. I intend to not pair any characters in a relationship unless they already have an established chemistry/romance. (Jaune and Pyrrah being an example.) So for those of you who are expecting a Yang and Blake relationship, look somewhere else.**

**3\. This story will take place in the middle of team RWBY's first year at Beacon, with Cinder and Roman out of the picture. How they got out of the picture will be explained, but at a later date. With all that out of the way, Let's get started.**

Weiss, Blake, and Yang of team RWBY woke up to the familiar sound of a loud whistle being relentlessly blown into their unsuspecting ears. Every day that they had attended Beacon academy the morning always started the same, but it never came as less of a shock, especially when they barely got any sleep in the first place.

"Gooooood morning, sleepyheads! The sun has officially risen on our last day of this semester!" Ruby exclaimed.

"You do realize a simple shake would suffice to wake us up, right? The whistle isn't necessary, and it never has been." Weiss complained, stuffing her head back under her pillows. Blake hopped off her bunk, having gotten used to Ruby's morning routine, only giving an irritated glance before grabbing her uniform and heading to the bathroom.

"C'mon, guys, the whistle is a tradition! We can't just give up on tradition, can we?" Ruby asked, cheerfully.

"I think our first order of business for the second semester should be to destroy that thing." Weiss mumbled. Yang climbed out of her bed, stretching out her legs and arms.

"I second that," Yang yawned. "What does the school even have planned for us today?"

"Hopefully it isn't another final." Blake called out from the bathroom. Everyone's faces went white at the mere mention of it, but Ruby quickly recollected herself.

"Whatever it is, Ozpin wants us up bright and early for the assembly this morning." heading towards the door, Ruby quickly turned around. "Oh, almost forgot! I'm heading down to the cafeteria for some breakfast, anybody want anything?" Weiss only asked for an early morning coffee, Yang shrugged her shoulders, and Ruby heard Blake mention something about cereal, but no specific kind. "Coming right up!" Ruby chirped as she left the room. As she closed the door though, she heard footsteps walking slowly towards her. She turned toward the sound to see an unfamiliar sight.

He was a Faunus. Wolf, to be exact. He was garbed in a large, white robe with red markings here and there. His sleeves stretched far past his hands, and in fact the robe seemed to be far too big in general. His hair was very short, and was a snow-white color, greatly contrasting his great, black ears. As he got closer, Ruby noticed the red markings to be the phases of the moon. He stopped in front of her, putting up quite a large smile at seeing her.

"Ah! Finally, someone who is awake. You wouldn't happen to know the whereabouts of the headmaster, would you?" He pulled his glasses down to reveal large, black eyes with yellow irises. Ruby had never quite seen something like that before, even Blake had regular human eyes.

"You're looking for headmaster Ozpin? Sorry, but I have no clue where he is." Ruby couldn't stop staring at his eyes.

"No need to apologize! You have just woke, after all." He let out a chuckle. "You see, I am of a special brand of researcher that focuses on the very things you hunt, the creatures of Grimm." Ruby nodded, listening intently. "We have just made an incredible discovery that could affect not only our understanding of the creatures, but that of combating them, as well!" He spoke enthusiastically, obviously excited by his work.

"Discovery? what did you discover?"

"I see you are interested, my child! Unfortunately this information is confidential, but I have no doubt you will learn of it soon enough in your classes." He pulled up his long sleeves to reveal a watch.

"Well, I best get a hold of him soon, for I am on a tight schedule. A pleasure speaking with you, whoever you are!" He gave Ruby's hand a quick shake and started making his way down the hall before suddenly stopping.

"Oh, curse me!" He turned around and called out to Ruby. "Today is the last day of the semester, is it not?" Ruby nodded, confused. "Why, I can't be bothering him on a day like this!" He pulled a large folder from his robe, looking at it with disappointment. He then turned to Ruby again and perked up.

"You!" He cleared the distance between him and Ruby in a flash, causing her to back up, startled. He was holding the folder out in front of him. "Will you give this to him?"

"Um, y-yeah, sure, I guess." Ruby stuttered, still shocked by his speed. She took the folder from his hand, scanning the outside of it. It seemed unimpressive, no warnings or confidential notices anywhere. She looked up to ask about this, but the wolf Faunus was gone, without even making a sound. Ruby found it a little creepy, but was also relieved to be out of his presence.

She strolled to the cafeteria, only to find it closed off, a sign nailed to the door. Ruby read over it...

_"Dear students, as you can see, the cafeteria is closed off to you today. We will be having a feast later, and thus necessary preparations must be done before opening it up to the public. We apologize for the inconvenience, but you must make due with any food in your dorms today. It will be well worth it later!" _-Profesor Ozpin.

Ruby raised an eyebrow. A feast? Nobody said anything about a feast. She turned and made her way back to the dorm, noticing other students walking in the direction of the cafeteria, one of which being Jaune.

"Don't bother, it's closed off." She called out. Jaune quickly turned around to greet her with a disappointed look.

"But I'm starving! I couldn't take time for food last night while working on Professor Oobleck's final..." He whined, turning back to walk with Ruby.

"What's with the folder?" He pointed to the object in Ruby's hand. "Is that your essay for Oobleck?"

"Nope." Ruby chirped, and raised her hand over Jaune's mouth to prevent further questioning. She didn't want anyone else to know about her encounter with the wolf Faunus except herself, and Ozpin. Before Jaune could say anything else, Ruby casually walked into her dorm, which was thankfully close to the cafeteria.

Yang and Blake were both in the room, and Weiss was taking her turn in the bathroom. Blake was reading a new book she had recently got for Christmas, and Yang jamming out to "The Achieve Men." Ruby identified it as their hit single, "We Don't Hunt For Trophies." She had the volume loud enough that Ruby could hear the song through her earbuds. At the sight of Ruby empty-handed, Yang pulled out one of her buds and raised an eyebrow.

"Thought you were gonna get us some breakfast. What happened?" She asked.

"Cafeteria was closed," Ruby replied, grabbing her backpack. "We're having a feast later today, apparently."

"Really? That's a weird reason to close it off. People need their chow." Yang commented. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, after all."

Blake closed her book, eyeing Ruby curiously. "I heard you talking with someone in the hallway earlier, but I couldn't pinpoint the voice. What happened?" Ruby stopped and thought a moment. Could she trust her team with the confidential info she'd been given?

"Well, nothing really happened, just some weird man asking for Ozpin. I told him I didn't know where he was, and that was that." Ruby stuffed the folder in her bag, hoping Blake hadn't noticed it.

"Probably someone who's helping with the special thing we're doing today. What time does the assembly start again?" Yang asked. Weiss suddenly appeared out of the bathroom, looking hardly any different from when she entered. Sometimes Ruby wondered why it took her so long to freshen up in the first place.

"It starts soon." Weiss answered, looking at the clock. "We need to go get our weapons; Ozpin announced yesterday that we would need them."

"Oooh, are we going to have a tournament?" Ruby asked, eager to fight something other than Grimm. Ever since the incident with the White Fang at the docks, she hadn't had a real battle with anything other than monsters. Sure, monsters were fun, but they didn't hold a candle to a one-on-one match of equal strengths. "What do you guys think?"

"I think Ozpin's just using this as an excuse to give one of his 'inspirational' speeches." Yang said, "But we won't know until the assembly starts."

"Why wait, then? Let's head down their now." Ruby proposed. "Get a good seat before everyone else shows up." The other three seemed to like that idea, so the team made their way down to the locker room, grabbing their weapons. It had been a while since any of them got to use them, so they were happy to hold them once again. Ruby was especially ecstatic to hold her _sweetheart_ again.

Once they had their weapons, the team made their way to the commons. The room was virtually empty, save for the few students who came early to secure a seat. The chairs were layed out in a very clustered fashion, due to the fact that the entire school had to fit in this one area. Luckily, very few spots in the front row were taken, so the girls could all six next to each other with an up-close view.

It didn't take long for the rest of the students to start piling into the commons. Eventually all the seats were taken and some students had to resort to standing near the walls. Weiss checked her watch, the assembly should officially start in about five minutes.

"We won't be able to hear Ozpin speak if this commotion continues." Weiss commented, and she wasn't wrong. The sound in the room was deafening with all the students talking about their own speculations for the assembly. Just as she said this, though, Ozpin calmly walked up to the podium on an elevated platform. He seemed to appear out of nowhere, despite there being no back entrance to the area.

He cleared his throat loudly into the microphone. The students all went silent waiting for him to speak. Ozpin merely took a sip of his coffee, a smug smile planted on his face.

"I believe no introductions are in order?" He chuckled, "You all seem to have recognized the importance of this day." He took on a more serious expression.

"Today marks a landmark for all of you and your training. For some of you this concludes the first half of your first year. For others it is a reminder that your time at this school is about to come to an end." He scanned the crowd in front of him.

"Aside from that, today marks a tradition we will remain true to uphold. Freshman!" He called out. A string of whispers spread through the mass of students, and Ruby couldn't help but notice the widespread grinning throughout the upper class men. Ozpin raised a hand, and the whispering immediately ceased.

"I realize the secret isn't exactly easy to keep, but I will give the benefit of the doubt in the assumption that you all didn't spoil it." A projection appeared behind him, showing a top-down perspective of Beacon's full campus. It then zoomed out, showing the forest of Forever Fall, as well as the Emerald Forest. What was weird were the red dots on the projection, here and there. The dots were clearly moving, so it wasn't just Ruby's eyes playing tricks on her.

"These red dots which you can clearly see, represent a Grimm, tagged by professional hunters and huntresses. You freshmen will be burdened with the task of hunting them." A hand was raised, it was Jaune's.

"Uh, Excuse me, profesor? How is this anything special? We kill Grimm all the time." His face reddened as he asked the question, obviously embarrassed as he asked the question.

"Quite simple, Mr. Arc. you see, our hunters and huntresses have tagged enough Grimm around the school for about one hundred kills per freshmen. Meaning there are approximately four thousand creatures out there." Jaune's eyes widened, unable to imagine that many Grimm, even in his head.

"We have always been safe from these Grimm, as they would not dare tread any ground populated entirely with warriors." He continued. "But that doesn't mean they are safe from us, today especially." Glynda Goodwitch stepped up next to the headmaster, taking the mic from the podium.

"It will be a competition. All freshmen will go out and compete for the most kills." She said coolly. "But there are some rules and guidelines." Ruby leaned in, listening intently.

"You will be competing alone, so teams will not be allowed to work together." Ruby's eyes widened. She hadn't worked alone since before she was even enrolled in Beacon.

"Each type of Grimm is worth a certain amount of points. The person with the most points at the end of the day, wins." She moved her finger across her scroll's screen, obviously reading the rules off of it.

"Beowolves and Boarbatusks are worth one point, Ursas are worth two. Deathstalkers are three points, and King Taijitu are worth four points, but you will get ten if you kill both a white and black pair." Glynda looked directly into the crowd, an earnest and pleading look on her face.

"The school highly discourages anyone to attempt to hunt a Nevermore, but they are tagged and on the map only to provide their location as a warning. However," She sighed, "If you do manage to kill one, you win." Ozpin took the mic back, and Glynda slowly walked off the platform.

"The map has been uploaded to each of your scrolls, but before you go, there are a few more things to mention." He spoke slowly and clearly for his next sentence. "Freshmen cannot interfere with or fight one another over kills, understand?" Ruby and her team nodded, as well as the rest of the freshmen. Ozpin was silent, but eventually, he pulled something out of his pocket. It was a revolver...

"Then let us begin!" He shouted, firing the gun. Immediately the area was blurred with the movement of eager, bloodthirsty hunters, but Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang stayed behind. They all looked at each other, a fire burning in each of their eyes.

Ruby was the first to leave out of the four, a trail of rose petals being the only reminder that she was even there in the first place. She rushed straight for the Emerald Forest, looking at her scroll as she ran. The dots varied in size, but there were some medium-sized ones on the outskirts of the forest, with two large ones near the center, and the largest one, unmistakably a nevermore, in the center.

Ruby sprinted for the outskirts, the scenery and landscape a blur at her speed. She reached her destination within minutes, and surely enough, a pack of Ursa were waiting for her.

The pack had six of them, one of them being an alpha. Two of them charged straight at Ruby, but one was immediately beheaded. The other swiped at Ruby's side while she was preoccupied with the other. She narrowly dodged its sharp claws.

Ruby hopped to a nearby tree branch, using the vantage point to snipe two of the Ursa, but not before the alpha charged the tree and knocked Ruby off her balance. Landing clumsily on her feet, Ruby was immediately overwhelmed by the alpha, as it relentlessly slashed and swiped at her. The other Ursa stood back, letting their leader do the work.

It seemed the alpha had the advantage, until Ruby blocked one swipe with the blunt edge of her scythe, and blew the Ursa's claw to pieces with one good, close shot. The beast backed up, howling in pain. This gave Ruby plenty of time to clear the distance between them and slice the other hand off, not taking any risks of it attacking her again.

The Ursa tried biting, but it proved an unwise move as Ruby shifted her scythe to it's gun feature, and shoved the barrel directly into the alpha's mouth. The monster was quickly reduced to nothing but a quivering, headless corpse as it stumbled forward and fell, dead.

Ruby turned to the others, but they had retreated. Disappointed, she looked through her bag again, trying to find the scroll. When she thought she had found it, Ruby pulled out not her scroll, but the folder given to her by the Wolf Faunus. Ruby quickly remembered her duty to give the folder to Ozpin.

"I'll probably see him later today," Ruby thought. "But I will probably forget again later today. I'm fast, I can give it to him now and make it back to win in no time." It didn't even sound convincing as she thought it.

"But how would I win? Losing that much time would surely lead to a loss." Suddenly, a large shadow crept from above, and flew over Ruby's head. That was when the idea hit her.

"The Nevermore!" She said, aloud. "I'll kill the Nevermore!" The idea already excited her, because not only did it insure victory, but it would be a challenging fight. Without a second thought, she decided that was her plan, and then rushed back down to Beacon as fast as she could.

Ruby was out of breath as she appeared in the commons area, surprising both Glynda and Ozpin, whom were standing atop the platform, discussing who knows what.

"Ah, Miss Rose." Ozpin greeted, despite being a bit taken aback at Ruby's sudden appearance. "To what do we owe this visit?" Ruby merely held out the folder, as she was still out of breath.

"Ah, what's this?" He asked, looking through the folder.

"Some wolf Faunus...gave me this...told me it was for you." Ruby gasped. Ozpin's eyes widened for a moment at the mention of the wolf Faunus.

"I see. I do not recall ever knowing a wolf Faunus. But what's this?" He pulled out a small memory drive, meant to be put into a scroll. Glynda handed him hers, and he inserted the drive.

Immediately his face shifted to pure horror. Ruby had never seen the headmaster look so terrified.

"What is it, Professor!? You look like you've just seen death!" Ozpin didn't reply. Instead, he grabbed Ruby by her shoulders, and locked gazes with her. His face was stone cold now, but his eyes couldn't have seen more horror.

"Ruby, you need to listen to me. Your semblance is speed, correct?" Ruby nodded. "I thought as such. Listen, you need to find profesor Oobleck as quickly as you can, only he can keep up with you." Ruby was so confused, and apparently it showed on her face, because Ozpin quickly pulled away and stood up.

"There is no time to explain. You just need to listen to me. Find Oobleck, give him this memory drive," He placed the drive in Ruby's hand. "and then both of you need to get to Vale as quickly as possible. This is a crisis that threatens not only them, but all of Vytal. Do you understand?" Ruby didn't reply. Thoughts of her team sprang through her head throughout Ozpin's orders. She had to find them.

"I need to find my team first."

"No! Listen to me!" Ruby had never heard Ozpin truly shout before. "You need to do as I say! You don't have time to find them. They could be here any moment now!"

"Who are they?" Glynda asked, knowing nothing more about the situation than Ruby. Ozpin started to say something, but stopped as he looked at Ruby again. He quickly walked over to Glynda and whispered something. Ruby didn't hear it, but if Glynda's reaction was anything to go by, she probably didn't want to hear it.

"We need to gather the students. They aren't safe out there!" Glynda pleaded.

"It wouldn't matter, they must have had it planned for today. Our students are away, our defenses are low, and the Grimm are in high numbers."

"We need to get them to safety and evacuate!" Glynda protested.

"Safety?" Ozpin ran his hand through his hair. "Nobody is safe from-

That was when the earthquake finally hit Beacon, and everything began to crumble.


	2. Chapter 2: A Looming Threat

**Authors Note:**

** First off, for those of you who are reading this after reading my original post of it, I would like to apologize for the original's sub-par quality. I am far more proud of this than the original. Most of the changes I made are the end, so the beginning isn't that different, but you can be expecting a more satisfying conclusion.**

** This chapter will change perspectives from one character to another. I don't want to confuse anyone with what's going on, but I feel this is the right course of action.**

** I should also take this time to thank everyone for the positive response to the first chapter. I do realize it was all setup, but this chapter is where the ball will truly start to roll.**

** With all that out of the way, let's continue.**

**Yang's Perspective:**

Yang could only watch from the cliff side of Forever Fall. She felt so powerful just a moment ago, surrounded by the corpses of her prey. But power quickly turned to helplessness as she watched Beacon shake and crumble.

The tremors were instantaneous, and extremely powerful. if it weren't for a nearby branch, Yang would have lost her balance and tumbled off of the cliff. Peculiarly enough though, the earthquake stopped just as quickly as it started. The forest was unharmed by the quake, but the same could not be said for Beacon.

The central tower was the first to topple, crushing even more of the school as it fell. Yang couldn't even view most of the destruction through all the dust and debris surrounding the catastrophe. The archways circling the school collapsed, and the ground around started to crack and break apart.

The stain glass windows throughout the structure began to crack and shatter, showering the ground below with fatal precipitation. Yang could only hope that nobody stood in the middle of all this.

_"Oh my God, the headmaster!" _She thought. _"I have to find the others!" _

**Ruby's Perspective:  
**

Ruby awoke under what she could only guess was a large pile of rubble, with a sharp pain in the back of her head. She couldn't see anything, or move for that matter, but she heard muffled voices to her right, along with the sound of rocks and debris being shifted around. Ruby racked her brain to recall what had happened, and eventually it hit her, synchronized with even more pain in her head.

She remembered the competition, the memory drive, the wolf Faunus, and a vivid picture came to her mind of Ozpin and Glynda's horrified faces, but she quickly pushed away that memory.

"Over here!" Ruby called out. Her call was met by the removal of the rubble above her, and the astonished face of Glynda Goodwitch quickly filled her view.

"Hey." Ruby greeted, giggling a bit at Glynda's reaction. She sighed in response, whether it was out of relief or embarrassment, Ruby couldn't tell.

"Aura is an amazing thing, Miss Rose." Glynda said as she helped Ruby out of the pile. "You're quite fortunate to have a lot of it."

"I don't feel _quite fortunate_." Ruby complained, rubbing the back of her aching head.

"Just be happy that you're alive. Are you injured in any way?"

"Nothing feels out of place, I guess." Ruby replied, trying to stand straight. She felt extremely dizzy all of a sudden. "I feel a little dizzy, and my head hurts, but that's about it."

"You must've hit your head. Will you be able to find Oobleck?" Glynda opened up her scroll, which was remarkably still intact. "I need to send a message to the other students, they aren't safe out there." She suddenly stopped, and slowly closed her scroll.

"What is it?" Ruby whispered. Glynda hushed her, listening in on something. She then turned to Ruby. "There are Grimm on the campus. You need to find Professor Oobleck, now!" Ruby was confused.

"How did they get on campus? I thought we had trained hunters on guard!" Ruby asked, pulling out Crescent Rose. It had a few dents and chips on the metal, and the blade was slightly bent at a weird angle, but it would suffice.

"We're dealing with more than just Grimm now, young lady." Glynda responded, as she drew her own weapon. "I'll hold them off, you go find the professor." Ruby was about to object, but Glynda shot her a look that said it all.

"Okay, okay, I'm going." Ruby gave in. She was about to get going before she stopped, one last question popping into her head. "Glynda?" Glynda turned, astonished to hear a student refer to her by name. "Where's Ozpin?" She smiled in response.

"The headmaster is fine, Miss Rose. He had other things to contend with at the moment." Ruby didn't press any further, and finally left Glynda behind, a trail of rose petals being her parting gift.

The halls of Beacon were almost unrecognizable to Ruby as she sped through them. The windows were shattered along the walls, and some passages were blocked off due to rubble. One hallway contained Beacon's main tower, which must have collapsed onto the rest of the school. Nothing was left untouched by the earthquake. Paintings here and there laid smashed on the ground, the floor was covered in cracks of varying sizes and shapes. The damage was unbelievable.

Eventually she had to stop and take a breath. The pain in her head became increasingly more intense as she ran. As she started to catch her breath, she could hear faint noises and footsteps echoing throughout the halls. Ruby didn't recognize the noises until the source leaped in front of her through one of the broken windows.

It was a Beowolf, and a particularly large one at that. It quickly spotted Ruby, and howled at the sight of her, signalling the rest of the Grimm. Ruby drew Crescent Rose and slashed the beast in half, but she was still far too late. The other Beowolves seemed to appear from nowhere, and in large quantities. They charged at Ruby from both directions, but their front lines were quickly cut down, her scythe a whirlwind in her hands. The others backed up, and Ruby took this chance to escape.

Despite her better judgement, Ruby used her semblance to escape, once again speeding down the halls, her vision blurring as she continued to run. She had no real idea where she was going, but any place was better than being surrounded by Grimm.

"C'mon, c'mon, where is it?" Ruby muttered. The pain in the back of her head seemed impossible to bear, and she was just about to stop, when at last an identifiable landmark came into her view.

Oobleck always kept a chair outside his room to send misbehaving students out, mainly Cardin. At the sight of this, Ruby went to a screeching halt. She tried to listen in for the patter of Beowolf feet, but she heard none. The last thing she wanted was to be cornered in an empty room, but Ruby prayed the room in question wouldn't be empty at all.

She walked into the room, which was a wreck. The walls had claw marks everywhere, the desks crushed and broken. Oobleck's maps up front were torn to ribbons and the remains laid on the floor. The culprits of the wreckage were two Beowolves standing in the middle of the room, one of them an alpha.

One of them caught sight of Ruby, and took a large leap towards her, claws and fangs ready to tear her apart. She rolled under the path of the leaping Beowolf, readying her weapon as she did so. Crouching, she took aim at the Beowolf's head as it landed, and fired.

A faint click was the only sign that she had pulled the trigger in the first place. To Ruby's dismay the weapon didn't fire, and as she stared at Crescent Rose in surprise, the Beowolf charged her, clawing with great ferocity and speed. Ruby dodged most of the swipes and bites, until the alpha tackled her to the ground. She wasn't able to move under the monster's weight, and as she struggled the beast put its face very close to hers. It stared for a short period, growling. Eventually it pulled its hand back and swiped at Ruby's face. Her aura protected her, the beast's claws only glancing her cheek. The Beowolf growled at this, and pulled its claws back again. Ruby readied her aura, but was shocked at what she saw.

The Beowolf's claw was enveloped in a black aura. The aura flickered like a raging fire, casting a shadow over the monster's claws. It swiped at Ruby once again, this time breaking through her own aura and slicing open her cheek, narrowly missing her left eye. Before the Grimm could strike again, a green blur knocked it off of her.

The Beowolf crashed into the wall, howling in pain. Ruby quickly got back up, identifying her savior as Professor Oobleck.

"To think a huntress in training would forget the most basic of combat principles! _Be aware of what's around you_." He spoke.

"Nice to see you, too." Ruby replied, turning to the alpha. "This one is mine." She twirled her scythe. "C'mon, round two!" The alpha took up her offer, going on the offensive. Ruby ducked under one of its swings, and tried slashing at its legs. The alpha leaped high, avoiding the attack and landing to her right. It then lunged at her once again. This time Ruby kicked some scattered papers off of the ground into the alpha, causing it to stop, confused. She used this moment to leap into the air, confusing it even further when the papers cleared and she was nowhere to be seen. Ruby landed on the beast's shoulders, her scythe curved around its neck. The alpha tried to shake her off, but only made the scythe dig into its flesh. With one quick motion, Ruby leaped into the air, pulling her scythe back and decapitating the alpha.

The professor appeared in front of Ruby as soon as she landed. His face was bruised, and his right shoulder had a deep gash that he didn't seem to take notice of.

"Very impressive." He commented. "Alas, my battle wasn't so fortunate. The monstrosity got one good strike, then turned tail and ran to the halls when I returned the favor." He looked at Ruby's face. "But I guess you didn't go unscathed, either." Ruby smiled.

"Its nothing, professor. We have other things to worry about." She pulled out the memory drive, and held it out to him. "Ozpin wanted you to see this." The professor's expression intensified, like he had a notion of what the drive contained.

"My scroll was destroyed by those Beowolves." He said. "But I think I have an idea of what's going on. We must head for Vale, correct?" Ruby nodded.

"Then we must make haste." He sighed. Ruby gestured for him to lead the way, and then they were off, speeding through the twists and turns of the hallways. Eventually they turned a corner to be greeted by the Beowolf pack Ruby escaped from earlier. They tried turning around to run, but more of them came from behind, blocking their only exit. This hallway was tight, too. Not a good area for a fight, especially when they were greatly outnumbered. Ruby readied her weapon for combat, but Oobleck stopped her, an idea clearly popping into his head.

"We'll jump through the window." He explained, pointing towards the shattered window to their right. "It'll be quite a drop, but we might just survive. Are you ready?" Ruby didn't have time to think, as the Beowolves were moving in on them. She merely nodded, then was shocked as Oobleck lifted her up and ran straight for the window, taking a leap of faith. They fell for a good couple seconds, but Ruby didn't look down. She soon felt the thud of impact followed by a snapping sound as she and the professor both tumbled downhill into some shrubbery.

Ruby stood up, brushing some twigs off her combat skirt, and walked over to Oobleck, who was holding his right arm and grimacing.

"I do believe it is broken." He said through gritted teeth. He pulled a couple shards of glass out of his forearm. "That was not one of my better plans." He admitted.

**Glynda's Perspective:**

Glynda Goodwitch was an experience huntress, but even she had her limits. As she stood alone in front of the school, the desperation of her predicament finally settled in. She hadn't kept count of all the monsters she had slain thus far, but it seemed to be too many for more to come charging in. Her aura was dangerously low, but she had to hold strong for as long as possible.

A pack of Ursa came charging forth. Glynda readied her duster as they approached. When they got close enough, a stream of flames spread from her weapon that incinerated the Grimm before they knew what was happening. When the smoke finally cleared, Glynda caught an intimidating sight.

They were Deathstalkers, two of them. Glynda had never seen more than one in one place before, and had especially never seen them act in groups. The smaller of the two was the first to approach, thrusting its stinger directly at her. Glynda used her aura to create a shield, not only stopping the attack but holding the stinger in place. The Deathstalker struggled to pull back, but when Glynda released her shield, she expelled a shock wave from it that toppled the Grimm over, showing its weak under belly. With great effort, Glynda called upon a storm of icicle spikes to impale the flipped Deathstalker. The monster was deeply punctured by many frozen spears, screeching with every infliction until it was rendered still. Dead.

The larger Deathstalker charged forward, too fast for Glynda to react. It swatted her away, causing her to drop her duster in the process. Landing with a thud, Glynda had the wind knocked out of her, and before she could catch her breath, the Grimm was charging her once again, closing the distance far too quickly for her to get out of the way. She was done for.

Or she would have been, had not a raging Yang Xiao Long stepped into the fray. She appeared out of nowhere, her hair ablaze and her eyes a crimson flame. She grabbed hold of the Deathstalker's tail as it lunged at Glynda, careful not to let the stinger touch her. With her tremendous strength, Yang ripped of the Grimm's tail, causing venomous liquid to start spewing from it's stump. The monster screeched in agony, and started to wildly swat at her. Yang dodged the first swing, but was caught off guard when the Deathstalker grabbed her with its other pincer.

It tightened its grip on Yang, intent on crushing her to death. Yang just smiled as her hair started to shimmer. In an explosion of fiery aura, she broke out of the Deathstalker's grip, completely obliterating its pincer in the process.

The monster started to back away, attempting a retreat, but was stopped by being impaled by a rocketed spear. Pyrrah Nikos leaped from a nearby tree onto the Deathstalker, prying her weapon from one of its many eyes.

The monster tried swiping her off, but its actions were fruitless as she repeatedly stabbed through its armor. Yang ran to her aid, and held the Deathstalker in place by its only good pincer. It struggled and shook for ages as it was speared, but eventually its actions slowed down, then finally to a complete stop. Pyrrah hopped off its corpse.

"It's all clear." She shouted, and from the sidelines, Blake, Weiss, the rest of team JNPR, and even team CRDL rushed out to congratulate and compliment them. The celebration was short-lived though, as Yang rushed to the surprised Glynda Goodwitch, whom was still down on the ground.

"Are you okay?" Yang asked, helping Glynda up. "We came as soon as we could."

"And apparently it was just soon enough." Glynda responded, and then she said a rarity among her vocabulary. "Thanks."

"All in a day's work!" Yang cheered, the others came to her side, once again celebrating. All were high-fiving and cheering, except for Weiss, who stepped forward, her expression was serious.

"Professor Goodwitch?" She asked. Everyone went silent at hearing her speak. Glynda looked at her, listening. "Have you seen Ruby anywhere?" Glynda smiled in response.

"Your team leader was tasked with going to Vale to warn the population. Last time I saw her she had left to find Professor Oobleck, who would be aiding her." Weiss didn't seem happy with that response. Glynda put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "She's in good hands, Miss Schnee. There's nothing to worry abo-"

Glynda was cut off by the sound of footsteps. Everyone stopped and readied their weapons, expecting more Grimm to come charging in. They all turned around to a surprising sight.

There were six of them, and they were all covered in white robes with varying red markings. The smallest of them had the phases of the moon as his red markings, and the largest of them had two crimson scorpions with long tails wrapping around his cloak. The one in the center of all of them had blood-red feathers scattered around his robe. The fourth had two raging red eyes on the front of his, and the fifth's were several claw and bite marks. The last one had two snakes intertwining and wrapping around his clothing, one snake being red, and the other black.

The smallest one stepped forward and pulled down his hood. He was a wolf Faunus, with large black ears and short white hair. Behind his glasses were two large black and yellow eyes. He gave an innocent smile, chuckling at the sight of the group, with all of their weapons ready.

"Quite hasty to the trigger now, eh?" He giggled. "Then I best not leave you with bated breath." He gestured at his colleagues.

"We are The Disciples of Grimm." He spoke.


	3. Chapter 3: Introductions & Revelations

**Author's Note: **

** I am very sorry about the long wait for this chapter. I have been very busy and haven't had the free time to keep a steady writing schedule. I won't bore you with the details, but trust me when I say I have a lot on my plate currently. Luckily, summer is only one week away for me, so at that time, a schedule should be set. I can only hope, though.**

** Also, after trying the one perspective at a time setup for the story in the last chapter, I should state that from this point on, perspective's won't be limited to only one character at a time, as they have in the past. I am pushing myself to be a bit more descriptive in these chapters, and I feel a way to improve this is to have perspectives be dependant on the situation, and the grouping of characters in said situation. In other words, I will describe from any character's point-of-view at any time, as long as they are within the setting of the situation.**

The introduction was vague, to say the least. The cloaked figures merely stood, patiently waiting for a reaction of any kind. The Wolf-Faunus found the group's confused expressions particularly humorous, letting out a chuckle as he looked from person to person, analyzing each of them with a raised eyebrow.

The students kept their weapons raised, but held no initiative to go on the offensive. Yang stood in the middle of the group, with Blake and Weiss to her left and right, respectively. Keeping her fists clenched, and her gauntlets loaded, Yang stood her ground as the wolf focused his sight on her. His glasses had an unusual glare to them, the shine blocking the sight of his beastly eyes. As if on cue, however, the disciple took the glasses off, sporting a slight grin while doing so.

"You must be Yang, I presume?" The Wolf asked.

"Yang, blondie, goldie, pick whatever suits your fancy. I've grown accustomed to them all." Yang answered, undeterred by his apparent familiarity with her. The question seemed harmless, but the amusement in his tone sparked her interest. "It's a little creepy for a man to know things about a girl he's never met. Care to explain?" The Wolf raised a hand.

"In due time. But first, may I ask a question?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

"Shoot." She answered. The disciple took a step forward, still a fair distance from Yang. Despite her better judgement, Yang followed suit and strode forward, shrugging off the concerned hands of her comrades. Not lowering her guard, Yang watched as the wolf took this moment to get a good look at her. Yang returned his gaze, examining the mysterious Faunus from head to toe.

The wolf eventually leaned in, his face uncomfortably close to Yang's.

"Tell me, miss Xaio Long. What do you see in these eyes?" He questioned. Yang was caught off guard, what kind of question was that?

"Excuse me?" The wolf pulled back, giving some welcome space between the two.

"They say that you can tell what someone's motives and emotions are through their stare, through the look in their eyes. I can see quite a bit about you currently, but what of me? What do I have planned, miss Xaio Long?" He spoke in a teasing tone.

"I don't judge others by appearances." Yang responded. The disciple laughed at the answer.

"It's not about appearances. It's about motivations." He spoke in a matter-of-fact tone. "Now let me ask again. What do you see?"

Yang finally took the wolf up on the offer, figuring she wouldn't get any answers until he got his. She took another look, deep into the abysses that were the disciple's beastly eyes. The black pupils seemed like shadows attempting to creep into the gold irises, polluting the unnervingly bright shine of them. It seemed as if behind that distracting gold shine, there were secrets and evil desires held, at home with the darkness.

"I see a monster. A shadow that hides itself behind a bright exterior, but could snap at any moment." Yang answered finally, satisfied with her own judgement. She took up a more defensive stance, knowing the time for talking was almost over. Blake, Weiss, and team JNPR stepped forward to her aid, weapons drawn.

The other disciples did not copy them, instead opting to leave the wolf to his own devices. He stood alone, at the mercy of the hunters and huntresses in training, should it lead to such an outcome.

"Well, well. I didn't expect such an articulate and poetic answer. Especially not from you." He spoke casually, covering his eyes once again with the unusually reflective glasses. "If only your sister had such a skill. Unfortunately, a naïve nature contradicts judgement on the unknown."

Their was a brief period of silence. A time quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Then, in an instantaneous blur of golden fire, Yang charged the wolf, tackling the disciple to the ground. The pavement caved in as she slammed him into the ground, leaving the wolf laying in a small crater, held by his assailant's gauntleted fists. Despite the damage, the wolf still held strong his smug grin.

Yang tightened her grip on the wolf, her eyes a crimson blaze. "What do my eyes tell you now?" She growled.

The wolf gasped a weak laugh. "I'm sorry, is that a sore subject?" Yang promptly pulled the disciple's smug mug close to her's, staring him down.

"You're gonna start explaining. Now." She threatened slowly, enunciating every syllable. It was to her surprise then that the wolf suddenly vanished into a black wisp, reappearing once again a few feet in front of Yang. He stood calmly, casually examining his cracked glasses.

"No, I won't be." He spoke calmly. "In fact, I believe it's about time we take our leave." Giving a short bow, the wolf strode back to the other cloaked figures, whistling an improvisational tune as he did so. Yang attempted to give chase, but was yanked back by Weiss and Blake, who struggled to hold the hot-headed blonde in place.

"Now is not the time, nor the place for this, Yang!" Weiss gasped, holding tight onto her teammate's arm.

"Like Hell it isn't! I'm about to put a muzzle on that dog!" Yang spoke angrily. Between Yang's choice words and her comrade's assuring words, the faint sound of high heels meeting pavement could be heard from behind. The team turned to the determined face of their superior, Glynda Goodwitch.

"I want your team and the others to retreat into Beacon." She ordered. The students eyed her, confused. "This bunch is beyond all you. I'd rather keep you safe than risk all your lives in a fight."

Team CRDL didn't take time for her to repeat the order, immediately running to take refuge in the collapsed junkyard they had once called a school. The others were not as easily persuaded, reluctantly standing their ground in protest. Glynda made no further attempts to convince them, instead keeping an eye on the cloaked disciples, whom looked with what could only be assumed as mild curiosity under their hoods.

Glynda jumped in surprise at the feeling of a reassuring hand on her shoulder. The hand belonged to Pyrrah.

"If what you say is true, then it would be best if you had help." She spoke calmly.

"We are trained for this sort of thing, after all." Jaune added. Pyrrah shot him a look of both appreciation and surprise that he of all people would stay and fight. Nora budged between the two, hammer held high like it weighed nothing.

"Yeah! They don't look so tough!" She exclaimed in voilent excitement. Ren rolled his eyes as he too stepped forward to back up his team, a small grin escaping his collected exterior. Team RWBY didn't say anything, but held pleading looks at the huntress in the hope she would change her mind.

Glynda turned away. "My decision is final." She spoke under her breath. Before any of the students could interject, she spoke again. "If you really wish to help, you could start by evacuating the school, or what's left of it, at least." Her voice was serious, but also had a grim tone to it.

Silence fell over the students as they reluctantly turned toward the school. There were words of encouragement and assurance called from behind, but Glynda didn't quite catch them in the spur of the moment. Eventually with the silence came loneliness, as if in the blink of an eye Glynda stood by herself. The disciples still watched, observing the huntress. A strong wind began blowing, whipping their cloaks with a whistle that broke the ongoing quiet between the group and herself.

Glynda finally returned the disciples' gaze. "I'd rather not waste any more time with trivial questions or taunts, and instead get straight to the point, if you would be so courteous." The wolf laughed in response to this.

"Getting straight to the point, eh?" He chuckled, tucking in the white hood that was repeatedly blowing around and into his face. "So be it. I respect that kind of attitude."

The wolf made an attempt to stride forward and confront Glynda, but was stopped by the outstretched arm of another disciple. He eyed the hooded figure curiously in surprise, but took his place back among the group while the figure took its time in short steps to Glynda. The disciple had a feminine figure, and the sound of high heels was clearly audible over the whistling wind.

While she walked, the disciple raised a pale, delicate hand and waved the other cloaked figures away. The gesture was simple, but the compliance of her group showed it held power, that she held power. One by one, the disciples vanished into thin air, a trail of black wisps following them closely behind. The wolf was the last one to leave, taking his sweet time to analyze the huntress and the disciple. Satisfied he had found whatever conclusion he was looking for, the wolf disappeared, an echoing howl manifesting itself as he did so.

Glynda didn't bother to watch where they were going, being too focused on the disciple that stood before her, on the crimson wings intersecting at her torso, cascading red feathers around the rest of the cloak. The relentless wind blowing into the cloak seemingly gave the illusion of the feathers swinging, and the wings flapping, like they could suddenly take flight at any moment and escape the cloak.

The disciple stopped in her tracks, just a few yards in front of her. Glynda gripped her duster anxiously at her side, ready to retaliate at any sign of an attack. The disciple seemingly had no weapon to speak of, but could have easily been hiding something under the bulky white robe.

"Why did you order a retreat?" The question caught Glynda off guard. The only voice she had associated with these villains was that of the wolf's, so it was to her surprise that the woman asked it in such a casual tone. Her voice was of a low pitch, for that of a woman. Whether she spoke out of genuine curiosity or disinterest, Glynda couldn't tell.

"I'm not so much of a fool as to send my students out on a suicide mission." Glynda answered, gripping her duster even tighter.

"You give us too much credit." The woman replied, almost apologetically. She pulled down her blowing hood to reveal the face of a young raven Faunus. Her skin was pale, and her eyes had the same colors as the wolf, with the pupils much thinner. Her hair was a deep black. In fact, when Glynda took a closer look, she could tell it wasn't even hair at all, but elongated feathers that fell elegantly down to her shoulders. "We are far from invincible."

With those last words filling the air, the raven flared a dark aura, comprising of shadows that flickered like fire, and licked at the ground around her, pulsating like a living being. The aura did not glow off of her physical being like normal aura, but instead surrounded her like a guardian mass. There were no more words to interfere with the conflict any longer.

Drawing from her pool of dark aura, the raven grimaced as she merged her being with it, creating large, elegant black aura wings that gradually cascaded shadowy wisps, not dissimilar to that of Ruby's rose petals. The raven seemed to struggle to pull herself away from the aura, showing signs of pain throughout the process. Glynda decided this was the time to take initiative.

Glynda darted towards the disciple at an incredible pace. The raven pulled herself away from the intoxicating aura and flapped her wings, which casted sharp, feathery spears like bullets. Glynda weaved through the onslaught of projectiles with ease, leaping over the disciple to flank her from behind. The raven must have expected this, as she leaped high into the air, meeting Glynda half-way.

Knowing she was at a disadvantage in ariel combat, Glynda quickly made a small Glyph platform to land on at her elevated position, and used her aura to create a small barrier to prevent being instantaneously knocked back down. Her attempt proved fruitless, however, as the disciple crashed through the barrier, wings curled to prevent any collision damage. Before she even knew what was going on, Glynda became well acquainted with the ground.

She tumbled back a fair distance after impact. Recovering as quickly as possible, Glynda braced herself as the disciple let an onslaught of feather spears rain down, all pinpointed at the huntress's location. Glynda cast a stream of fire from her duster, incinerating most of the feathers, while others glanced her shoulders and legs. She grimaced at the piling stinging pains, but was grateful that nothing worse came of it.

The disciple didn't have time to evade the incoming flames. Curling her wings to shield herself, the raven was set ablaze by the attack, the wings taking almost all the damage. Without them to remain elevated, she fell to the ground in a raging fireball, an explosion being the indication of her impact.

Not wasting any more time, Glynda called upon a storm of icicle spikes to rain down on the raven, using her duster to accurately pinpoint the strike. She was unable to see if any of her projectiles made contact through the smoke of the explosion, so Glynda waved her duster, casting a strong wind with the intent of blowing the smoke and debris aside. It took her a moment to focus her eyes beyond the spikes that had already embedded themselves within the crater, but when her perspective was clear it became quite apparent what the problem was.

_She's gone!?_ Glynda thought. _But where is she now!? _A feeling of panic swept through the huntress as she became far more aware of her surroundings. Time seemed to slow down as she examined everything and anything around her, looking for even the most miniscule movements. It felt like an eternity of anxiety and preparation before she finally caught the sight of small black wisps moving like a motion blur. Glynda felt lucky for seeing them at all, as they were moving quickly throughout the area, before taking a sharp turn straight for her.

Without any time to react, Glynda took the full force of a wide kick to her stomach. The attack launched her back, reuniting the huntress with an old acquaintance. Glynda struggled to take breathes that clearly would not be so generous. She had the wind knocked out of her, and as she tried standing up a sharp pain shot throughout her abdomen. Multiple broken ribs were evident through the agony of taking her stance.

She got one good look at the disciple before the raven became a blur of motion once again. This time would be different, however, as Glynda focused on the accelerating wisps that trailed closely behind the invisible disciple. Just before the disciple could strike her once again, Glynda raised the strongest aura barrier she could muster. The tactic proved sufficient as the disciple became visible at collision, a dark feather sword in her leading hand, undoubtedly created from her aura.

The barrier held strong as the sword shattered into pieces, and the raven crashed into the shield, still carried by her momentum. Cracking sounds were disturbingly audible over the hum of Glynda's aura. The disciple's left arm snapped into an awkward position, and blood started to flow from her nose as her legs gave out. Slumping to the ground, the raven only twitched what limbs she could still move, holding the same disinterested features and predatory stare.

Glynda didn't hesitate however as she expelled a shock wave from her shield, destroying it in the process. The wave carried the disciple's limp body a fair distance before crashing into the pavement, the ground caving in slightly at landing.

Storm clouds began to quickly gather around the area as Glynda prepared her last strike. Summoning up all the power she had left, Glynda guided the clouds to merge together in the sky with her duster. The result was a tremendous black mass that blocked out the sun. The temperature fell significantly around the huntress, and light drops of rain in an instant turned to a relentless downpour. The already strong wind gained even more strength, the light whistle becoming an echoing howl.

The mass of clouds started to slowly descend, guided by Glynda's duster. While the distance they stopped at was still far, they lurked over top with a presence unlike any other. Using the last of her strength, Glynda lowered her duster to point at the disciple's body, which still laid limp and still. The only thing alive being the aura slowly circling around its host, as if quietly trying to wake the raven up from a deep slumber.

Glynda struggled to hold her weapon as it seemingly started to gain encumbering weight to it. She took one last look at the disciple, and the black aura, hesitation finally starting to creep its way into her subconscious. Any remorse she had for the raven quickly left as she remembered Beacon, the earthquake, and the remains that only stood as a vile mockery of its previous wonder and pride.

And finally, without taking any more time to think about it, Glynda called upon a lightning strike that recreated the purpose of the blocked sun for a short period. The light was blinding, and the thunder was ear-piercing, yet Glynda watched as the bolt touched down on the disciple. The black aura, with an amazing swiftness, acted as a shield for the hopeless disciple, shadowing the cloaked raven for a short period before being pierced by the lightning. The shadow twitched as the lightning passed through and struck the disciple, before disintegrating like a dead flame.

The disciple's cloak was set ablaze, but was quickly put out by the downpour. Glynda only stared, awestruck that the cloak still remained, and not a pile of ash in its place. She stared for quite some time, long enough for the rain to stop, and the storm clouds to vanish, their purpose fulfilled. The sun revealed itself once again, lighting up the area with a welcome warmth that Glynda accepted gratefully. She pulled her head back, letting the beauty of the situation settle in. Eventually, her gaze tracked back down to the corpse of the raven-faunus.

Glynda strode to the body as fast as she could, a new pain revealing itself with every step she took. It was clear to her that she had sustained more damage than what had been assumed, and it took all her strength to not collapse onto the cold ground.

With one last, painful step, Glynda finally found herself next to the disciple. The cloak was still smoking, and the smell of various burnt substances filled the air around the corpse. The white robe was in tatters, burn marks staining the pure white a disgusting brown. The ground around the cloak was of the same color. Glynda let out a deep sigh, relieved that she had come out victorious. Raising her hand to wipe sweat off her face, she couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eye something suspicious about the cloak. She scanned the corpse one last time, this time reaching out and touching the cloak. To her own horror, Glynda only stared as the area inside the cloak that was supposed to contain a body slowly collapsed in on itself. _The robe was hollow._

Silence befell the veteran huntress, both out of the horror of the revelation, and the stinging pain that burst out the front of her abdomen. A crimson spray fell from the wound, and Glynda looked down to find a sword had made its way through her back. A sword in the peculiar shape of a _raven feather._

The huntress made an attempt to speak, but a delicate hand wrapped around her head and cupped over her mouth. Her vision began to slowly blur, both from the blackness and tears that filled her eyesight. All sounds started to become faint, and Glynda struggled with her entire being to hear the last whisper of her assailant.

_"Checkmate."_

And with one last twist of a blade, there was nothing but silence in a dark void...

**To be continued...**

**Author's Note:**

**So it has finally been published! I will admit to being lazy on this one, but I am just terrible at writing fight scenes, which was the majority of this chapter.**

**Couple more things, though. Would you guys be satisfied with chapters under 2000 words if it meant more regular uploads? There will be the same amount of detail, but just a bit shorter. I'll still upload a long one every now and then, should this become the new rule, but I just wanted your guys' opinion on it before actually trying it. **

**Lastly, I have had another RWBY story in the works for quite some time now, and am happy to announce that a new story will be coming soon, called _Old Friends._ It takes place after team RWBY's graduation, and is much more lighthearted than this story. It still has a villain and action in it, so don't worry about that. That's about as much as I will reveal about that story for now. **

**And before you jump at me with pitchforks crying sacrilege, let me state now that it WILL NOT, I repeat, WILL NOT, take priority from this story. I intend to upload this more frequently than I have been, and put that as a side project. It's good to be back, guys! **


	4. Chapter 4: Questions And Answers

**Author's Note:**

** Consider this to be the first of many chapters that will be uploaded over the summer. Now with school out of my hair for a while, I should be able to crank these things out much quicker than I have been recently. Also, for those of you curious about the side story I had mentioned in the last chapter, **_**Old Friends**_**, I expect the first chapter to be uploaded sometime in July. That due date should give me enough time to create a plot outline, draft, and finalize it just in time for Volume Two, which I am ecstatic about. I will talk more about it at the end note, so for now, enjoy this chapter, and the many to come in the future!**

The silence that encompassed the demolished halls of Beacon was startling to the two teams that traversed through them. The sound of bustling students and muffled chatter that once filled the pristigious academy seemed like a far off memory. The teams hastened their pace as they rushed through the debris and clutter, as if trying to catch that memory, which was just out of reach. Yang Xiao Long moved through the structure with the most ambition, searching every nook and cranny of the destruction to find remnants, pieces, _anything_ untouched to make her believe that her home wasn't destroyed entirely.

Though they were searching for survivors, the teams remained quiet as they strode through the various rooms and halls. They had no reason to call out when they knew there would be no response. Nobody wanted to believe it, but it was the painful truth. The only sounds that dared to break the silence were the various coughs here and there. Dust and smoke filled every corner of every area, and the two teams quickly covered their mouths with clothing to act as a filter. It wasn't perfect, but it would suffice.

Or at least be sufficient for seven out of the eight. Jaune Arc attempted to pull the collar of his shirt up over his mouth, like everyone else, but the armor that was bound tightly to his torso made it impossible to stretch the fabric far enough. When that didn't work, he tried to wrap his hood around his neck to cover his mouth, but the hood wasn't long enough. Most of the coughing came from him as they toured the school. The others on multiple occasions offered him something to act as a filter, but he quickly refused, saying he was fine.

Yang stopped as she heard her him break into another coughing fit. Sighing, she unwrapped her scarf and tossed it to him. Jaune only gestured for her to take it back.

"I've already told you that I don't need..."

"If there are still Grimm wandering about you might as well be setting of a flare." Yang cut him off. "We have enough problems as it is." Jaune didn't object to the matter any further, reluctantly wrapping the orange scarf around his mouth. They moved on a little further through the wreckage, no more words being shared between the group until Yang came to a sudden stop.

"Here it is." She announced, gesturing at a doorway, barely visible behind the jagged rubble that stood in front of it.

"Here is what?" Weiss spoke up. "It was to my understanding that our purpose of wandering around here was to evacuate any remaining students."

Yang didn't respond as she hefted up what the others could only guess to be fragments of furniture, possibly a couch. A cloud of dust rose as she lifted the mass of trash out of the way. The process revealed the small doorway, its frame broken off the hinges.

"After you, snow angel." She teased. Weiss rolled her eyes as she lead the way into the doorway. The group piled in behind her, Yang blocking the entrance once again as she backed in. "Home, sweet home."

Even in ruins, the room was unmistakably identifiable. There were two sets of collapsed bunk beds on both sides of the space. The sun shone brightly through the lone shattered window at the end. Weiss couldn't help but laugh, of course "home" was referring to their small, crowded mess of a dorm. Even Blake broke into a small grin.

"So," Yang began, plopping down on one of the bunks, "What now?" Everyone else followed suit in getting comfortable, seeing where the conversation was leading. Only Weiss remained standing in the center of the dorm.

"Not gonna relax, princess?" Yang joked. Weiss didn't respond as she started pacing around the room. "What's on your mind?"

Weiss turned around. "What isn't on your minds?" She spoke seriously. "How can you all possibly remain so calm, after everything that's happened today?" The room was rendered silent at the question. In that silence, the whistle of the wind through the broken window seemed to act as a keeper of said quietness. Nobody knew what Weiss expected to hear as an answer, but Blake attempted a response.

"It's not that we aren't worried, Weiss." She assured. "You'll just have to have some faith in professor Goodwitch." She attempted to put a hand on Weiss's shoulder, but the heiress waved it away.

"I'm not worried about her, it's the other things." Looks of curiosity were shared between the others. Weiss sighed, "The school was never empty, guys. There were _people _in here when it crumbled. Fellow students of Beacon, friends of ours." The statement turned everyone's faces pale white. How had nobody else bothered to put two in two together? Of course a disaster like this would have casualties of some magnitude. The students of Beacon were strong, but not invincible. Lives were almost certain to have been lost in a catastrophe of this caliber.

Nobody tried to reason against Weiss. What she spoke of was the cold, disturbing truth, and no amount of denial could bring back those that were lost.

_If any were lost,_ Yang thought. It seemed childish to believe in something so far fetched, yet the Blonde brute couldn't help but feel that something was missing from the equation. She racked her brain to put the mental puzzle back together. The others continued to say nothing as she pondered the theory, her deep thinking muffling all surrounding sounds outside the ones coming from her own brain, yet inside her mind the gears turned with a volume that only seemed to distract. After what seemed like a subconscious eternity, Yang jumped out of the bunk, breaking everyone else out of their own various mental trances.

"The bodies!" She exclaimed, the pieces finally fixed together in her thought-puzzle. Looks of confusion gave Yang the hint that they would need more to go off of than that.

"Think about it, guys. If people were killed here, how come we haven't seen any bodies?" She questioned, bringing a whole new mystery to their predicament. "There's no way everyone made it out alive, it was too sudden. So tell me, where did the bodies go?"

Weiss wasn't buying her theory. "Probably buried under tons of rubble, or worse." She spoke. "It's not uncommon for people to go unfound in these situations."

"But to not find one? In all the time that we've wandered through here? Doesn't that strike you as even a little bit weird?" She countered. "There's a bigger picture here, Weiss. I think there's more to this than we originally thought."

"And what exactly did we originally think!?" Weiss snapped. "I'll tell you what I've been thinking. I think that our school was attacked today for a reason that is beyond all of us. By _people _that are beyond all of us. And now we're all just sitting here trying to deny the reality of our problem!" As the heiress spoke, a noticeable drop in temperature around the room was felt. As if the weather were reflecting her mood, storm clouds began to quickly form outside the dorm. The drastic change of environment caught everyone off guard, including Weiss. A black blanket fell over the blue sky, whether it be out of mere coincidence, or something else. Weiss snapped out of her brief confusion and continued.

"...The reality of our problem is that we know _NOTHING_!" The heiress shouted the last word with all of her breath, but her words were left unheard as a blindingly large bolt of lightning struck not far from their location. The dorm lit up for a moment in a white flash, and the deafening roar of thunder that came soon after shook the room. What glass remained within the window frame propelled in pieces into the room, glancing some of the group with small cuts. Weiss could feel one particularly large shard make its home in her right leg, causing her to collapse onto the floor.

There she laid, heart beating frantically and ears ringing persistently. The storm didn't appear as a coincidence to Weiss anymore, and she flared her aura in anticipation for the next bolt to strike. It never came.

A strong, gauntleted hand pulled the heiress up to her feet. She could feel a stinging pain in her leg the moment she stood up, and her face must have shown it. Blake examined the wound, which pierced deeper than what was first thought. Blood trickled down her shin while the shard remained in place. Blake stood up.

"This may hurt a bit. Hold her tight, Yang." Yang followed the instructions promptly, tightening her grip on Weiss as Blake yanked the shard free, quickly untying her bow as soon as the wound opened. She was right, it did hurt, but the pain leaned more towards a lot than a bit. Weiss bit the insides of her cheek to keep from letting out a light scream. The pain of the shard removal rendered her completely oblivious to everything else, as she didn't even notice when her Faunus-teammate pulled Myrtenaster out of its sheathe. Blake pulled the ice-dust container from the weapon's chambers. Dropping the rapier, Blake opened the dust cartridge to reveal the white, powdery substance. She forcefully pulled Weiss's leg out straight, and sprinkled a bit of the dust onto the wound before tying her bow around it to act as a makeshift bandage.

Weiss opened up her eyes once again. The sting was still there, but it was far less significant. Yang let go of her, allowing Weiss to test the treatment. She took small steps, each one inflicting a slight pain, but hardly enough to stop her. She took a look back at Blake, shocked.

"Whoah, where'd you learn to do that?" Yang beat Weiss to the punch.

"Skills like this were imperative to survival in the White Fang." Blake answered, not taking her eyes off of Weiss's leg. "The effects will wear off, eventually. If we run out of ice dust, and the wound still looks bad, I'm afraid we'll have to cauterize it with fire." She spoke seriously. "Try to put very little pressure on it for now, and only when necessary." Weiss nodded in understanding, taking a seat next to team JNPR, who watched the whole ordeal in complete silence.

After all the distractions and arguments, the question still remained, _what now_?

"I think we need to leave, and soon." Blake spoke up. "We won't find any answers here. The only person that could have given them to us was professor Goodwitch."

"We could go back and help her." Yang proposed. Blake waved the idea away, to the disappointment of her teammate.

"We'd only get in the way, and Weiss isn't fit for combat at the moment."

"But where would we go? Nobody outside of Beacon will have answers, either." Pyrrah questioned. "I think it'd be best if we stuck with what Glynda told us to do."

Blake thought it over. This was probably the most anybody had ever heard her talk. "There is one person." She began. "..._Ruby._" Yang eyed the Faunus curiously.

"You want us to find my sister?" Yang asked. "What would she know?" Weiss's thoughts immediately jumped back to their encounter with the wolf, how he had infuriated Yang with the mention of her sister.

"If what that wolf said was right, then she's already confronted those disciples." Weiss answered before Blake could even form a response. "Professor Goodwitch informed us that she left with professor Oobleck, too. If Ruby doesn't know anything, he might." Yang fell back onto her own bunk in exasperation.

"Fantastic, we have not one, but two leads on the situation. Too bad they're both headed for Vale at mach speed." She sighed. "We'd never catch up with them."

"If we can't catch them, we can at least meet with them in Vale." Weiss persisted. She gave Blake a pleading look, hoping her friend would support the idea.

"It's the best option we have." Blake admitted. "One way or another, we can't stay here." Yang sat back up, looking at both her teammates with mild curiosity. She took a moment to think the plan over, every now and then attempting to speak up only to say nothing at all. Eventually she shrugged her shoulders in indifference.

"I guess it's worth a shot." She gave in. "But what about you guys?" Yang gestured at Team JNPR, whom still all sat on the bunk next to Weiss.

"It's up to Jaune what we do." Pyrrah answered, patting her team leader playfully on the back. "So what do you think, Jaune?" The blonde had remained quiet for quite some time, pondering his own ideas and scenarios. The question snapped him out of his thoughts very suddenly, but his lips seemed to move immediately out of instinct.

"I think we should stay behind while they follow Ruby's trail." He answered quickly. "If there are still people around, we have to help them." Pyrrah nodded at his reasoning, and the rest of his team seemed satisfied with the answer as well.

Team RWBY didn't object. It seemed a decision was finally made. Weiss couldn't help but feel that they were abandoning their fellow team, despite the fact that they were staying out of their own choice.

The decision of when they would leave for Ruby wasn't as difficult a choice, but it was a discussion all the same. In the end, the team decided to leave under the cover of nightfall.

The sun had already started to set. Farewells and good lucks were shared between the two teams. Yang and Blake went first, saying goodbye to each individual friend. When it was Weiss's turn, she was reluctant to confront the team, so Jaune met her half way.

"Tell Ruby we said hello." Jaune added as he pulled Weiss in for a hug. She didn't resist the act, but it did come as a surprise to her. When he pulled away, his expression was determined. "Be careful with that leg."

Next was Pyrrah, who respected Weiss's space and merely put a hand on her shoulder. "You guys stay safe out there. Those disciples could still be lurking in the shadows." She warned. "A part of me wants to go with you guys, but another part knows it isn't my place." Weiss didn't say anything back to her as she stepped away, letting Nora skip onto the spotlight.

"This is like something out of a movie! You guys are going on such an adventure, I wish Jaune would let us go with you. I'll try to convince him later, and maybe we can swoop in at just the right time, while you guys are cornered!" She chirped. "Not that I want you guys to get cornered, its just..."

Ren proceeded to step in, covering the babbling redhead's mouth with one hand, while he shook Weiss's with the other. Nora was still talking into his hand, as if it wasn't even their. The words only came out as high pitched muffles.

"I wish you all the best of luck." And with those few words, Ren pulled Nora back from Weiss, returning to the rest of the team. They all said no more as they looked back out the window frame.

The storm clouds that appeared so suddenly had left in just the same way, leaving the sun to cast very much welcomed light and heat into the room. Before leaving, Weiss checked her injury. The escaping blood had slowed a little, and the pain was still numbed from the dust.

Blake looked at the wound another time as well. "Are you sure you want to go through with this plan? The travelling will put a strain on your injury."

Weiss waved her teammate away, tying the bandage back up. "I'll be fine."

"Don't be so sure, when that dust wears off..."

"I know what happens when the dust wears off." Weiss cut her off, rolling her eyes. "I can take care of myself, you know." Yang laughed at the statement.

"Yeah, until the second that baby needs to be either cauterised or frozen again." She chuckled. Weiss shot her a look of annoyance, which in turn served to only cause her to laugh more.

Yang once again hefted the debris that blocked the doorway. "Don't trip on your way out." She joked. Weiss stormed out of the room in fumes, taking one last glimpse at the dorm, at the bunks that were so lazily set up at the beginning of the year. Despite its flaws, Weiss knew she would miss it. She left the room only to hear the blonde break into laughter once again. The heiress turned, face red and arms crossed.

"What's so funny now?" Yang didn't bother responding, as it was clearly apparent what was so funny to her when Blake stepped out of the dorm, Myrtenaster held in an outstretched hand.

"You forgot something." She pointed out. Weiss promptly snatched the rapier from her teammate's hand, embarrassed. Even Team JNPR laughed at the irony.

Weiss turned away from the room, prepared to not look Yang in the eye for the next hour or so. When the laughter finally died down, the heiress checked the weapons chambers before finally sliding it back into its sheathe, a satisfying click signifying that it was locked in place.

"Let's just go already."

**End Notes:**

** And that was chapter four! I realize it's a lot shorter than the past three chapters, but I felt that this would be a good stopping point for now. I will be going back to Ruby and Oobleck in the next chapter, so we can finally see what they're up to. This chapter, at least to me, was mostly needed for transition and exposition. It also served to provide more character interaction and dialogue into the story, which has been lacking a bit due to all that's happened. I really hope that you all have enjoyed reading this! If so, follow me to become updated as soon as I upload. And if you REALLY like the story, why not a favorite for good measure? Any reviews are greatly appreciated, too. I love reading what you guys have to say about the story so far, It's by far my favorite thing about writing these chapters! **

** Finally, a brief description of the setting for **_**Old Friends.**_** The story takes place after Team RWBY's graduation, with all of them separated and doing there own things, until a new threat rises when rogue hunters and huntresses are broken out of confinement by a mysterious villain, who leads them to attack Vale in an all out war! The new villain is yet another OC. What can I say, I like writing villains!**


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